Beirut / Almost 100,000 people have fled the Kurdish-Syrian enclave of Afrin since a Turkish military offensive was launched on the region, a United Nations humanitarian office said in a report Monday, while the European Union’s foreign affairs chief expressed her concern at the ongoing military activities in the zone.

Afrin city, located in a northwestern Syrian province of the same name, was captured by the Turkish army and its allied Syrian militiamen on Sunday morning, a major milestone for Ankara in its offensive against the Kurdish armed groups in an operation that the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said had internally displaced 98,000 residents.

Meanwhile, at a foreign minister council in Brussels, the EU’s foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said she was worried about the situation in Afrin.

“We have from the beginning stated that military activities not targeted directly against Daesh (an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State terror organization) or al-Nusra, the listed United Nations terrorist organizations, should absolutely be avoided,” she told press.

The OCHA said 75,000 displaced people had fled to Tal Refaat, which was still under Kurdish control, while the rest sought refuge in Nabul and Zahraa, predominantly Shiite Muslim communities under the control of the Syrian regime.

The Syrian Democratic Forces, an umbrella group predominantly comprised of the YPG Kurdish militia, had been in control of Afrin since 2012, very soon after the outbreak of civil war in Syria.

Although the YPG receives support and training from the United States, the Turkish state regards them as a terrorist group intrinsically linked to the Turkey-based PKK Kurdish separatist insurgents.

On Jan 20, the Turkish army launched a military incursion against Afrin, which is isolated from the swathe of Kurdish territory further east, citing a security threat to its border.

The OCHA estimated that 100,000 people remained in Afrin district and said it would increase its humanitarian aid efforts in the area. (March 19, 2018, EFE/Practica Español)